Day 4

First Presbyterian Church of Boonton

March 30th, 2010

After a miserably rainy day, I was quite moved by the hospitality of Reverend Jen. I just knocked on her door and she let me stay in the warm, dry confines of the education building. She even made me tea and soup, and brought me a Passover Haggadah to make me feel at home. I'm overcome with gratitude.

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When I was taking a shelter break at a Target today, an old man started asking me a bunch of questions about my walk. Then he sat down to wait for his daughter to finish shopping. When she finished she came over to get him, and, as he was leaving, he stuffed a five dollar bill into my hand and told me to buy myself some lunch.

Hopefully the weather will treat you better in the upcoming days! It’s the crucial first days of the journey after all, and it must be pretty discouraging – well, at least it would be to me. Hope you don’t lose your drive!

Awww. I hope you encounter many more of those great kind acts in the next 9 months. What a totally altered perception of humanity you’ll have when you finish… Wonder if it will be good or bad, or just different.
Safe travels and hit me up when you’re in Chicago! The Macy Mae dog will want to pounce on you again.

I’ve been thinking about this encounter a lot, because I believe religion (to put it briefly) is a leading reason for bad things that happen in the world.

The role of religious organizations is, primarily, to perpetuate one of a handful of absurd fictions as fact, but with the effect of supporting occupations where one’s role is not to make money, but to listen, advise, and give, and creating quasi-public spaces that support communities.

When these resources are given freely, not with a divisive agenda, but with a primary openness toward others as fellow human beings – as they often are, actually – these are good things. And while I strongly advocate for a fact-based world, I wonder in that theoretical future, who would take the place of these people and institutions?

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I'm walking across America.

That's the idea, at least. I'm walking westward from New York City for nine months or so.
If everything goes according to plan, I'll be in Oregon when the clock runs out.
If nothing goes according to plan, maybe I'll end up in Peru or Mongolia or Pennsylvania.
You can read all about the details of my trip
if you're so inclined.